Battle over Confederate history hits Madison

Madison officials are being urged to remove a plaque honoring Confederate soldiers as “unsung heroes” at gravesites at the city’s Forest Hill Cemetery. Known as the Confederate Rest, the area is the burial site for over 100 rebel soldiers who perished as prisoners of war at Camp Randall. It’s the northernmost cemetery for Confederate soldiers in the country.

The call to remove the plaque comes after many Southern cities are taking down statues honoring Confederate leaders — and meeting resistance from white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups. In Charlottesville, Virginia, last weekend, white supremacists clashed with counter-protesters over the effort to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee. One woman was killed there when a man drove his car into a crowd of people protesting a rally by Ku Klux Klan and other white nationalists.

Compared to the Robert E. Lee statue, the plaque in Forest Hill Cemetery is small and inconspicuous — few Madisonians even know it exists or where it is. But many who are aware of it are disgusted by it.

“I think the city needs to take the plaque down. We need to take it as seriously as we would other symbols of hate,” Adams says. “It is absolutely honoring the people that fought over the lives of my ancestors, a war directly related to chattel enslavement. I don’t think the city should honor that.”

The plaque, erected in 1981, states that “valiant Confederate soldiers lie buried" at the site. It explains how within a few weeks of arriving in Madison, “140 graves were filled, the last resting places for these unsung heroes, far from their homes in Alabama, Tennessee, Louisiana and Arkansas.” The marker also displays two crossed Confederate battle flags.

For nearly two decades, city policy allowed outside groups to fly the First National Flag of the Confederacy on a nearby flagpole, but only on Memorial Day and Veteran's Day. Small Confederate Battle flags on graves were allowed year-round. City staff were also banned from participating. Eric Knepp, Madison’s parks superintendent — who manages Forest Hill cemetery — declined a request for comment. So did Mayor Paul Soglin, but his office said that he would release a statement soon.

In May, Ald. Shiva Bidar-Sielaff, who represents the area, successfully fought for a total ban on Confederate flags at the city cemetery.

"I worked diligently for a year with Ald. [Marsha] Rummel, the city attorney and parks staff to create a policy that does not allow the Confederate flag to be flown anymore,” said Bidar-Sielaff in a statement posted to Facebook. “Alder Rummel and I are now working on the plaque with parks staff and city attorney — so stay tuned."

The Confederate soldiers buried at Forest Hill were part of the 1st Alabama Infantry Regiment. After weeks of fighting in 1862, the regiment surrendered in Cairo, Illinois. More than a thousand Confederate soldiers were brought to a stockade in Camp Randall, which was primarily a Union army training facility during the Civil War. But the camp was not equipped to be a prison and after three months, the soldiers were moved to Camp Douglas in Juneau County. But before they were relocated, 140 died of wounds and disease while imprisoned in Madison.

According to a memo issued by city attorney Michael May in 2016, the city used to own the Confederate National Flag and the Confederate Battle Flag, which it displayed on a city-owned pole in the Confederate Rest area for one week before and after Memorial Day. City staff also removed and stored “replicas of the Battle Flag” that were placed on graves by the Sons of Confederate Veterans during this two-week window each year.

But the practice was discontinued in 2000, according to May’s memo.

Isthmus was unable to locate a local member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. But Charles Allen Sullivant Jr., chair of the national organization’s media committee, says there’s nothing inappropriate about the marker.

“This whole country — some places at least — has turned into an open-air insane asylum. It’s just the thing of the moment and people will get mad about something else soon,” Sullivant Jr. says. “Reconsidering where you have a statue in front of a courthouse or something, is one thing. But a plaque in a cemetery, seriously?”

But Savion Castro, a Madison native who works at One Wisconsin Now and saw posts about the plaque on Facebook, says a public display calling Confederate soldiers “unsung heroes” is offensive.

“They aren’t heroes. These soldiers fought to preserve human bondage and slavery, the original sin of this country. We haven’t fully healed the wounds of slavery or Jim Crow,” Castro says. “And it’s telling that even in a state that fought for the Union, these soldiers are honored. They fought for an evil cause. If they had their way, [the Confederacy] would be its own country with slavery still enacted. I think there is a way to commemorate the dead without exulting the evil cause for which these soldiers died to maintain.”

Ald. Arvina Martin agrees. She wasn’t aware of the plaque until recently, but she’s supportive of her colleagues’ efforts to remove it.

“Perhaps, compared to what is happening nationally this isn’t the biggest deal in the grand scheme of things. But it’s still a deal and it bothers people for good reason. It’s on city property so if there’s something we can do about it, we should,” Martin says. “I think we can preserve the history of this site without memorializing it. The plaque is better off in a museum setting where the words can be put into context.”

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Comments (29)

Damnatio Memoriae

There's nothing I hate more than dead POW conscripts. We ought to organize a weekly two minutes hate followed by a collective spitting on their grave.

Joe Landiamore than 1 year ago

Hysteria

These guys were probably poor farmers or working stiffs whose only creed was to save there own butts and those of the guy next to them when the bullets and shells flew. The plaque hardly supports slavery.

Craig Willemore than 1 year ago

No need to debate, the marker is gone

So I stopped by the Confederate Rest this morning on my way to work to see the marker for myself, and it was gone! The whole thing; plaque and the stone it was affixed to. I didn't think the mayor had the power and authority to do that.

Angelmore than 1 year ago

Welcome back to 10 May 1933 Berline

Welcome back to 10 May 1933 Berlin. The leader of Madison has decreed that the memorials of Confederate Rest are inappropriate and will be removed. “We will reinstall a proper marker with their names but one that does not speak of the Civil War as an act of heroics by the Confederate insurrection.”

Who appointed the mayor to be dictator and decide what is and what is not appropriate on monuments, and what can be written. His decision to remove the markers is purely political and designed to obtain political advantage.

The big stone monument at confederate rest was erected by the “United Daughters of the Confederacy” and has been there for over one hundred years. It’s is dedicated to “Mrs. Alice Whiting Waterman and her Boys.” She is buried within the rest and is the only non-soldier to be buried there – she died in 1887. It’s obvious that the mayor does not know about Mrs Waterman or her dedication to the graves of the southern soldiers. It’s a very loving story of a woman who wanted to ensure that “her” soldiers of the south were not forgotten. Whether you agree with this story or not it’s part of the real history of Madison and the civil war.

Since “Confederate Rest” is on “City of Madison” property. I guess the next step is to have the federal Department of Veterans Affairs move the bodies of the confederate soldiers to a federal veterans’ cemetery in Alabama since they were classified as “United States” veterans in 1958.

Mr. Soglin has forgotten that he is to enforce the Constitution of the United States and that includes the first amendment, even when what is written he believes is inappropriate. What he has done with the confederate monuments is to bring back the book burning done by the storm troopers in 1933 because he doesn’t like it.

I grew up in Madison. My great, great grandfather was a union cavalryman from Iowa and I had a cousin from Alabama who died as a prisoner of war at Springfield, Illinois.

What I can tell you is that we as a country have done a deplorable job in teaching the history of the United States. In addition, it’s too bad people do not know the real history the Democratic Party as it was the democrats who started the civil war, created the KKK, established Jim Crow laws and fought civil rights legislation tooth and nail for over 100 years; yet the democrats are the great leaders of civil rights and equality – go figure.

For all those who have commented on the topic, I hope you have actually visited Confederate and Union Rest in Forest Lawn – it’s a silent lesson in history that should be learned.

“Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.” George Santayana

Eric Sprenglemore than 1 year ago

Thank you Madison

As a tax paying permanent resident of Madison I chose this city because of acts like this one. The Mayor, the mentioned alders and the parks department make me proud to call Madison home with such quick and decisive action. Treason in the name of hate has no home here and therefore I do. I and this City will not accept tollerance of the intolerant. Thankyou Madison!

Christian Hansenmore than 1 year ago

Rest in peace

Who knows if those soldiers fought "valiantly" or not. We do know that 140 died in captivity soon after they arrived in Wisconsin. That seems kind of awkward. Okay, it was outrageous.For over a century, we have been able to honor Americans who fought each other in America’s most tragic and deadliest war. Now, Mayor Soglin, using war rhetoric from a century and a half ago, says he didn’t want to give “reverence for the Confederate insurrection and treason against the United States,” while ordering the vandalism of markers for dead Confederate soldiers.And, I will bet that the prisoners of war were most likely not slave owners. Most Confederate soldiers were fighting for independence from what the Union had become, just as American revolutionaries fought for independence from Great Britain. In the South, the “Civil War” is known as the War for Southern Independence. Confederates didn’t want to take over the Union; they wanted to leave it. That wasn’t “treason.”Let the dead rest in peace, again.

James Maasmore than 1 year ago

Virtue Signalling at it's Worst

The plaque that Mr. Soglin had removed unilaterally and without community input was not a monument or memorial; it explained the history of the northernmost Confederate burial ground. Union soldiers apparently honored the secessionists buried there (not their cause) in their time. See: https://books.google.com/books?id=h-j729leMxIC&pg=PA69&lpg=PA69&dq=Alice+Whiting+Waterman+confederate+rest&source=bl&ots=UWcLYXj9_O&sig=BUOb8DK78FqeToq_O_y9wtVH8-E&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjTnLTQ5-DVAhWXw4MKHZPeBlA4ChDoAQgqMAE#v=onepage&q=Alice%20Whiting%20Waterman%20confederate%20rest&f=false Too bad in this era of perpetual outrage and virtue signalling, Mr. Soglin lacks a similar grace.

Gordy Sussmanmore than 1 year ago

Consider the Wisconsin Weekly Patriot of 1862

The Wisconsin Weekly Patriot Newspaper on April 26, 1862 reported on the arrival of Confederate prisoners at Camp Randall. The reception of the prisoners by those in Madison was without hate or malice with many in the city providing food, clothing while visiting the camp freely. One report states that "Several of the prisoners (some as young as 16) claim to be loyal men and say they were impressed to take up arms against their will." Could one of these boys be one of the dead buried in Soldiers' Rest at Forest Lawn? How far we have come from those days and from the words of Abraham Lincoln in his 2nd Inaugural Address, "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." It is heartbreaking to see a nation so torn (https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS3408)

Karen Emerymore than 1 year ago

Doesn't seem appropriate

to remove the entire marker from the cemetery. Why not just remove the word "valiant" from the marker, and replace "unsung heroes" with "soldiers?" Then it's just telling a story, no honoring.

Angelmore than 1 year ago

re: Doesn't seem appropriate

I'd agree with that.

D.more than 1 year ago

re: doesn't seem appropriate

I agree to that, too. and let the new plaque also talk about Alice Whiting Waterman. Her devotion is part of this story.

Marymore than 1 year ago

Please Return Our Dead

Four of my G-G-Grandfathers fought for the Confederacy, one was imprisoned at Point Lookout MD. One of my wife's G-G-Grandfathers died at Fort Delaware and is buried in a mass grave near there. The words on the Confederate monument at Arlington National Cemetery are appropiate:

NOT FOR PLACE OR FOR RANKNOT LURED BY AMBITIONOR GOADED BY NECESSITYBUT IN SIMPLEOBEDIENCE TO DUTYAS THEY UNDERSTOOD ITTHESE MEN SUFFERED ALLSACRIFICED ALLDARED ALL — AND DIED

Michael Thomasmore than 1 year ago

Hate Mongering Press

For-shame to all Journalists who spread this kind of crap in what used to be known as a free country, with respect to those who think we are free.

Zebbymore than 1 year ago

response to removal...

The reflexive response condemning the removal of the plaque shows that we still have work to do to educate the public as to why such relics are now contextually inappropriate. Those who say that history will be erased by these actions are merely defending their own latent though partially veiled racism and entitlement.

anonmore than 1 year ago

Leave it

There's no reason to remove it. A plague does not effect or harm you personally in anyway the civil war happened before our time and is a peice of history whether it's bad or good it's a part of our becoming so I say leave it. Stop being so sensitive and embrace the things that happened to get us to where we are you can't change the past so regardless of leaving the plague there or not it still happened.

Anonymous more than 1 year ago

Re: Leave it

...but the plaque wasn't installed until the 1980's.

D.more than 1 year ago

They are U.S. Veterans.

Confederate Soldiers, Sailors and Marines in the Civil War were made U.S. Veterans by act of congress in 1957. USPL 85-425 Sec. 410 approved 23 May, 1958. Those men are equal to all U.S. Veterans. If the plaque is removed, you are removing a U.S. Veterans memorial.

Richard L. Roberts.more than 1 year ago

Thank you for this

Thanks for the information. I was torn on this issue, because there is obviously a difference between honoring Robert E Lee in a public square and honoring a soldier at his final resting place. This information clears things right up. If congress said they're US Veterans I'm in no position to disagree

Victor Toniolomore than 1 year ago

Nope

Read the actual law please (http://uscode.house.gov/statutes/pl/85/425.pdf). You'll see that they weren't making them US vets except for the purpose of providing a pension to their widows. "For the purposes of this section" are the key words here.

Kevinmore than 1 year ago

So?

Congress chose to address the issue. Receiving a US pension means they had enough respect for fallen enemies to pay their widows. We should have enough respect for them to at least replace the marker before tearing it down in response to a vocal few. Then again, this is Madison. Hopefully the city will be distracted enough to let us keep our flag

Victormore than 1 year ago

Not really

That scope of that act is much more limited than you make it out to be. It provided their widows with pensions and nothing more. It pointedly did not give Confederate memorials the protections afforded to US war memorials. https://www.facingsouth.org/2015/07/busting-the-myth-that-congress-made-confederate-ve

Terrymore than 1 year ago

Going home

Forgive my ignorance, but is there some reason the remains could not be returned to Alabama?

BGDmore than 1 year ago

Remains

Go dig them up.

Stinkeltonmore than 1 year ago

horse and buggy travel

BGD, long distance travel was quite arduous in the 1860's. America's first steam train came in 1930, but exploded the following year. It was only 1856 when trains crossed the Mississippi.

MFmore than 1 year ago

Make a new plaque

It's right to mark the bodies of the dead, but calling them "unsung heroes" or "valiant" goes to far. Replace the plaque with one that's more factual and calls attention to the fact that these men were also traitors to their country.

Meganmore than 1 year ago

Secession

Secession wall certainly unpopular is entirely legal especially according to the Constitution and therefore the southern states weren't traitors. The founding fathers said a free people ought to replace the government when it became destructive of its own ends or in other words behaved tyrannically

Kennymore than 1 year ago

Remove it all

There was no reason you needed to quote the racist-loving Sullivant in this article. He is not local and his comments are disrespectful. Reprinting hate-filled statements against people with mental illness certainly is not helpful here. Anti-racism is not mental illness, and while poor editing isn't a deliberate action, it does create pain for people. Please stop this.

Kate Moranmore than 1 year ago

Ignorance is the enemy

I prefer to see an additional plaque added that tells of how the south tried to destroy the nation, that it was not "valiant" and that these were not "unsung heroes" but prisoners of a dispute which was decided in favor of the Union. Keep the plaque. Add more educational information (including who donated this plaque). There are tons of resources on the Civil War and Wisconsin's part in it at the Wisconsin Historical Society (great online information as well).

Matthew Beriganmore than 1 year ago

Remove It

It's just another, albeit smaller, marker of racism: particularly informative are the last lines about a "gracious Southern woman" who took care of the graves of "her boys". That smacks of southern racism.

Francine Flambeaumore than 1 year ago

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